Over the weekend a Dallas legend was inducted into the Hall of Fame. No, not that blubbering Emmit Smith (sorry, I was an Oilers fan back in the day) - I'm talking about Ben Gold the 43 year-old who was a founding member of the US National Video Game Team and set the high score records on Stargate, Millipede, and Q-Bert as a teenager almost 3 decades ago.
Ben and a slew of his industry-legend cohorts were inducted to the International Video Game Hall of Fame in Ottumwa, Iowa - famous (to arcade history buffs anyway) home to the Twin Galaxies 
Arcade. There is no actual "HALL" for this Hall of Fame yet, but plans are in the works so someday a road trip to Ottumwa will be in order for me. So for now there is a website and some celebratory events this last weekend to honor the inductees.
For an interesting take on the event check out the blog that Ben Gold wrote for the Dallas Observer. He posted 3 of them covering the multi-day event.
Here is the full list of Inductees:
Eric Akeson, Turbo Pac-Man Champion
Kevin Bachus, X-Box Design Team
Ralph Baer, Historic Industry Pioneer
Rob Barrett, Tutankham Champion
Otto Berkes, X-Box Design Team
Seamus Blackley, X-Box Design Team
Nolan Bushnell, Historic Industry Pioneer
Brian Cady, Tempest Champion
Paul Dean, Spy Hunter Champion
Ben Falls, Moon Patrol Champion
Dennis “Thresh” Fong, Legendary PC Gaming Champion
Ben Gold, Legendary Arcade Champion
Ike Hall, Past Donkey Kong World Champion
Ted Hase, X-Box Design Team
Ken House, Dig Dug Champion
Andrew Laidlaw, Galaga Champion
Chris Mansfield, Kicker Champion
John McAllister, Asteroids Deluxe Champion
Billy Mitchell, Legendary Arcade Champion
Shigeru Miyamoto, Creator of Donkey Kong
Masaya Nakamura, NAMCO Founder
Steve Ritchie, Legendary Game Designer
Perry Rodgers, Mario Brothers Champion
Todd Rogers, Legendary Arcade Champion
Scott Safran, Asteroids Champion
Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, Legendary PC Gaming Champion
Steve Wiebe, Donkey Kong, Jr. Champion
Phil Younger, Berzerk Champion
Pac-Man - Classic Arcade Game
Posts
2 comments:
Steve and Billy, together again. Is that little Billy on the front row?
Yeah - hard to recognize him without the red white and blue tie but that's him draped over the Centipede cab. No suit but same hair.
Post a Comment